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New Delhi : Ptotesting Indian wrestlers have called off a protest near the parliament building following a government assurance that an inquiry into their allegations of sexual harassment of young athletes by the federation would be completed in four weeks.
\nThe wrestlers and their nearly 200 supporters held a sit-in protest for three days at Jantar Mantar in the capital, New Delhi, accusing the federation president of sexually and mentally harassing young female athletes.
\nThey had sought the immediate removal of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and some other officials pending inquiry against them.
\nSingh, who is also an MP of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, earlier dismissed the allegations as a political ploy to usurp his position and told media he was \u201cready to be hanged\u201d if even any female wrestler proved the sexual harassment charge.
\nOn Friday, he cancelled a news conference meant to reveal a \u201cconspiracy\u201d against him and sent out his son to speak to journalists instead.
\n\u201cWe are not authorised to speak on anything,\u201d he told them, saying his father would instead address the media at the federation\u2019s annual meeting on Sunday.
\nIndian Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur met protesting wrestlers for a second time on Friday and said an inquiry into the accusations will be completed in four weeks.
\nHe also announced that the federation president \u201cwill step aside and help in carrying out the probe\u201d.
\n\u201cUntil then, a committee will carry out day-to-day work of the federation,\u201d he said.
\nMale and female wrestlers, including Olympic and Commonwealth medallists, announced a boycott of all competitions until Singh was removed.
\nWrestler Bajrang Punia announced the decision to call off the protest on Twitter and welcomed the government\u2019s pledge to investigate.
\n\u201cThank the government on behalf of all my fellow players for taking our agitation and demands seriously,\u201d he said. \u201cOur fight is not with the government. We are all fighting against the federation and its president.\u201d
\nVinesh Phogat \u2013 one of India\u2019s most decorated female wrestlers and leader in the protests \u2013 has accused Singh of harassing \u201cseveral young wrestlers\u201d and said she knew \u201cat least 10 to 20 girls\u201d who had recounted sexual harassment at wrestling camps.
\n\u201cIt has taken a lot of courage for us wrestlers to come together and protest,\u201d Phogat and other top athletes wrote in a letter to the president of the Indian Olympic Association, PT Usha.
\nPhogat said she was \u201cmentally harassed and tortured\u201d by Singh after she failed to win an Olympic medal and \u201calmost contemplated suicide\u201d.
\nYoung athletes \u201cdo not deserve to be in an environment of intimidation\u201d, the letter added. \u201cWe will not budge until the WFI president is sacked.\u201d
\nUsha, a former Indian athletics star, has expressed her sympathy for the wrestlers, calling for \u201ca complete investigation to ensure justice\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi : Ptotesting Indian wrestlers have called off a protest near the parliament building following a government assurance that an inquiry into their allegations of sexual harassment of young athletes by the federation would be completed in four weeks. The wrestlers and their nearly 200 supporters held a sit-in protest for three days at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":341577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,31],"tags":[6030,759],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341578,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341576\/revisions\/341578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/341577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}